I am currently a Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine in the UK, having written for Wired UK since its launch in 2009, and speak regularly on the impact of developing technologies on consumer behaviors at Wired Consulting events and elsewhere.
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Quite a week for EA. First, it was voted the worst company in America by voters to the Consumerist – polls being one of those fairly weightless but cathartic systems the Internet has embraced to increase user engagement*. A day later, it has released a press release announcing that one of the main probable causes of voting on that poll – the ongoing controversy over the ending of Mass Effect 3, released in March by its subsidiary BioWare - is being addressed.

The line from BioWare is that this is largely a reallocation of priorities, to address fan demands for closure, while preserving the creative vision of the original game. According to Casey Hudson, Executive Producer of Mass Effect 3 and the target of much of the fan ire – so much so that a conspiracy theory evolved that the ending was created by him without input from the full writing team:

We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player.

Or, to put it another way, the game’s hero Commander Shepard is in all probability still meeting the same end (or ends), but there will be an attempt to answer some of the questions raised around that end – what is [spoiler] doing on [spoiler], why does [spoiler] [spoiler] and what is it with those [spoiler]s and their [spoiler]?

Personally, I am hoping that it will also introduce more backstory on the final antagonist of the game, perhaps adding an entire glowing family.

[UPDATE: BioWare have added more detail on their blog, confirming that the ending will not change. So, much as I expected. No news on the possibility of a Catalyst Family spin-off. I also exchanged emails with an EA publicist, who told me, not hugely surprisingly, that they had no further comment at this time.]

The timing of the announcement is telling – as a side benefit, it slashes the sails of much of the commentary around the Consumerist poll, but more importantly it heads off the risk of fan activism during BioWare’s presentation at the PAX East convention. BioWare now have some months of grace, and the protests centred around the “Retake Mass Effect 3” Facebook page and web presence will perforce subside. When the DLC is released, for free, attempts to kickstart another fan revolt will seem progressively more – that word again – entitled. This is assuming, at least, that the DLC is seen to make good-faith attempts to harmonise the ending as it was given with the negative response to it among those vocal communities.

Meanwhile, back in the 21st century…

Not all is sweetness and light, of course – there will inevitably be holdouts advocating for their favoured resolution to the adventure. And, although the ending of a video game has been stealing the limelight, there are other issues EA should probably be thinking about – the use of DRM in its Origin download store, sporadic reports of users locked out of its forums also being unable to access their purchased games, and its sales strategy in general, where a large company founded on the boxed-product model is adjusting to a new world of social games, digital downloads and micropayments.

For all the jubilation this announcement may occasion, this is actually one of the easiest and least impactful changes a company could make – the only cost being the hours and expense of creating the content, and the hit taken by releasing it for free. If it can swing EA back into the PR ascendant against its traditional rival, Activision, this will be a fine price.

There is no way EA can please all the people all of the time – and, for a long time, it was favoured by the same sort of fan antipathy being directed at Activision and in particular Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick. Activision have had a fairly easy ride recently, even when introducing Skylanders, a game based around a marketing strategy any company would probably have killed to have created, and announcing a real-money store for items in its upcoming Diablo 3. Neither of these companies, the US’ two great publishing “big beasts”, can be as blamelessly obedient to the will of the fans as one might like – it would be simply uncompetitive. But there is a case to be made for working out how best your consumers like to be monetised, and following those strategies.

This announcement does not mean that EA is the best company in America, any more than an Internet poll meant that it was the worst. In the battle for hearts and minds, though, it could be a valuable step.

The full press release can be read here.*Do you agree or disagree with this slightly sniffy assessment of Internet polls? Vote below!

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John, if you didn’t yet, I encourage you to give The Witcher series by CDPR a shot. Neither of the two is a perfect game, but they’re still very satisfying titles, and once that can actually claim their artistic integrity intact. Above all, the guys behind them offer a very different approach to the customer – both games are now DRM free, the box versions come with loads of bonus materials, they were extensively patched to address the crucial issues and any DLC they release comes for free.

Thank you. I am looking forward to playing The Witcher on the XBox. I have wanted to play it but my pc is not strong enough to handle it. Looks like a great game and a way to avoid EA. Great news about the company not nickel and diming,DRM free. Appreciate the info.

Although, as a historical curiosity, CD Projekt RED briefly attempted the other anti-piracy technique – sending letters demanding payment to people they suspected of having downloaded copies without paying. That was pretty unwise, PR-wise, and it’s good to see them adapting.

CD Projekt RED also run GOG.com, which sells old and increasingly newer games without DRM – and are offering a free download of Fallout this weekend. If you don’t have it, you should definitely get it – any remotely modern PC will be able to play it.

And speaking of games for fairly low-spec PCs, you might be interested in taking a look at the IndieFort bundle, which has some old-school RPGs in there – http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/indiefort-bundle-1

I don’t think anyone saw FORBES as being the one major source of fair and balanced reporting on this issue, one that actually investigated what the complaints consisted of. Almost all of the rest of the gaming media totally dropped the ball on this issue; definitely going to be more skeptical of game critics’ reviews in the future, will take a closer look at what gamers are saying. Oh, and no more preorders for EA products…

I have not seen any jubliation at this announcement. In fact, it’s made some people even more trepidatious than anything. Who knows what Bioware and EA are going to give us now? Yeah, they say that they’ve been taking in fan input and opinion, but if that were really the case they’d look at actually doing some changing to the ending, not clarification. That ending was a mess and it came out of nowhere. Admittedly how else would Shepard bring down the freakin reapers, but we get three fights with actual reapers that show they can be taken down only to have the “big win” probably go down in Shepard’s head. SPOILER And how are they going to deal with the “best” ending? A breath and then she’s dead anyway?

The Retake Mass Effect movement has no intention of sitting back while we wait, at least not from what I sort of read yesterday (I had a busy day, I only had time to skim Facebook). I really hope that they find some level of closure for everyone but there will always be holdouts like you mentioned. I’m curious to see where this goes. Especially since Bioware is kind of acting like this whole mess is the fault of the consumer who just wanted a good product and a suitable ending for a journey they sold us on the prospect of it being truly OURS. The almost have a tone in their FAQ like we’re inconveniencing them with them having to reprioritize their DLC content release but I’m pretty sure that people want this more than they want multiplayer DLC (I dunno why, but I sensed that was what was on the horizon first).

People need to give them a break, and wait and see. I got spoiled on the ending three days after the game came out, due to the interwebs-rage-explosion. I hated it at first, was every bit as angry and upset and downright depressed as most other people. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to finish the game. I’ve been thinking about it since, working it out in my head. The sad truth is, whatever ending they gave us, there would have been a segment of the fans who disliked it, and I think what they tried to do was leave it open to interpretation… didn’t really work, as they’re finding out now, but kudos for trying?

I agree with all of the criticisms already brought against the end of the game, and I see no need to repeat them again.

It does suck that they’re not going to retro-fix the ending, because there are a million ways it could have been better written and more epic… but they are at least adding additional content, and I trust the developers that they’re doing the best they can to make as many fans as possible happy with what they do. There are a lot of holes in the ending that CAN be fixed with clarification after the fact–if it’s done well. Tweets from bioware staffers like Jessica Merizan and Mike Gamble sound hopeful. Finger crossed that they have truly taken fan feedback to heart.

For myself? I found an interpretation of the ending I will choose (because, due in part to that interpretation, there really is only one choice.) that suits me. I can imagine the gaps filled in with my own spin on events, and write my own “epilogue” to get the ending I want. And who knows, maybe the DLC will leave me pleasantly surprised.